Comprehensive coverage

First conference on nanotechnology organized by students from all over the country - this week at Bar Ilan

Students from various research fields such as biology, materials engineering, chemistry, physics and electronics, organized an entire conference on their own that will be held on 3/8 at Bar-Ilan University * The conference - on behalf of and for students - is intended to promote the field of nanotechnology in Israel and bring to the attention of many young researchers the recent advances made in this new and exciting subject

Nano technology. A new and exciting topic
Nano technology. A new and exciting topic

A parable from the twentieth century tells about a young farmer and an elderly farmer, who competed with each other in growing wheat in their fields. The elderly farmer harnessed his horses to a plow, and led them through the field to dig trenches in the ground. After he had finished plowing his field, the old man went one after another, and with his bent back scattered a handful of seeds along each hole. He worked for a whole week, sweating in the hot sun.

The young farmer used an air-conditioned tractor, and finished the job in two hours.

It seems that the parable reflects well the reality of today: the owner of the century is also the owner of the technology. The State of Israel is a living testimony to the power of technology: we have many enemies from all sides, whose number exceeds the number of its inhabitants by ten or more - but it is the supremacy of technology that protects the country. Advanced wastewater desalination technologies allow Israeli farmers to save water that they spend on crops, while Syria, which is also based on agriculture, is facing a severe water shortage. It is clear that Israel must maintain its technological advance, in a world where scientific textbooks are updated every decade, or it will fall by the wayside. But what is the technology worth developing? Where should you invest? The students chose nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is an innovative field that focuses on the most basic factors that make up matter. Every substance in the world consists of combinations of billions of atoms or molecules, which give it its unique properties. They are what give a metal pot its ability to withstand heat, glass its transparency and cartilage its ability to thatch between the bones. Until now, engineering has focused on the rough processing of materials: the ancient man knocked two stones together, and got a sharp stone knife. The idea of ​​nanotechnology has come to fundamentally change materials science: we design and carve at the atomic level, and plan new and smarter molecules, which will form the basis for smart materials capable of changing their shapes and properties according to demand.

Students from all over the country, coming from different and diverse fields of research such as biology, materials engineering, chemistry, physics and electronics, organized themselves in the last few months in an unusual venture, and organized an entire conference on their own at Bar-Ilan University, which will be held on Tuesday of August, 2009. The conference - on behalf of students, for students - It is intended to promote the field of nanotechnology in Israel and to bring to the attention of many young researchers the recent advances made in this new and exciting subject.

Although this is an unusual phenomenon - a conference organized entirely by students - the event was received with great enthusiasm and support from all the universities in Israel. Over two hundred promising young researchers have registered for the conference, and no less than a hundred of them will present their research in the field of nanotechnology. A quick look at the content reveals how diverse and innovative the content is. The studies range from the presentation of a new type of nanoparticles capable of identifying cancer cells, to the presentation of new and revolutionary materials, with different and fascinating properties, containing carbon nanotubes. These and other materials may be used in the near future to create computers that are smaller, faster and have a lower energy consumption.

The organizers of the conference testify that they recognize the magnitude of the responsibility placed on their shoulders, "We come to change. To show that students can create and initiate, our goal is to establish a young and creative community of researchers where ideas, opinions are shared, problems are solved and thus research in Israel is marched forward." Dana Medina, the chairman of the scientific team, says, "We are here to encourage the students to focus on the most modern fields of science. We hope and believe that the enterprise we are starting here will yield the next generation of researchers who will come to the laboratories of the Academy in Israel."

It is hard not to be impressed by Medina's words, and by the great responsibility that the organizers take upon themselves. They are all research students who work, study and research in laboratories. Some have families, others are already planning their post-doctorate period abroad. But everyone is leaning towards the same goal - to enable Israel to compete with honor in the global nanotechnology race, and to establish the nano-Zionist factory in the Holy Land.

Comments

  1. 100 NIS entrance?!? Not "a bit" expensive?
    Even though it's a conference of researchers and everything, you still have to remember that these are students...

  2. The "Zionist Nano Factory" is interesting.
    Is there a link to the site?
    Its contents, something...?

  3. Well done for the initiative!

    I'm a little sorry about the topic of the "nanotechnology" conference.
    The term "nano" taken from the market has almost no scientific or technological meaning. There is no connecting factor between "nano" research in physics, chemistry, biology and materials engineering! Our world consists of atoms (a tenth of a nanometer) typical size and molecules, the latter of which are sometimes in the nano range, but until recently no one thought of calling basic studies in the solid state or chemistry by the name "nano". The name "Nano" is intended to obtain research budgets.

    "Nano" research is not really interdisciplinary but rather a Tower of Babel where each field speaks its own language and there are not many points of contact between them. By the way, nano research in Israel is enjoying a major boom due to a grant of several million that the Technion received from a wealthy donor on the condition that the state match the contribution with a similar investment on its part. The other universities also jumped on the bandwagon and the country became a "nano" powerhouse (or nano itself) where each university has its own nano center.

    The only apparent perceptual difference in the "nano" study is the concept of bootom-top assembling structures and investigating them from the small scale and from there to larger scales whereas in the past it was common to investigate and build structures with a top-bottom concept. In my opinion, this is not enough to define a field or to serve as a common language between researchers.

Leave a Reply

Email will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismat to prevent spam messages. Click here to learn how your response data is processed.